COVID-19 and autoimmune diseases. Review

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large amount of data has been accumulated indicating a connection between this new coronavirus infection and the development of autoimmune manifestations in various organs and systems. The review includes data from foreign and domestic articles published in PubMed over the past 6 years, which are devoted to the role of COVID-19 as a trigger for the occurrence of systemic and organ-specific autoimmune diseases, including hematologic diseases. The development of autoimmune diseases (AID) after COVID-19 can be triggered by the infection itself, as well as vaccination. The emergence of AID is due to both molecular mimicry and immune dysregulation caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The review provides a description of individual cases of development of different AIDs, as well as the results of a number of cohort observational studies covering a period of 1-2 years, which analyzed large data sets of patients with COVID-19 infection. A unique aspect of AIDs following SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to other previously known viral pathogens is the extremely broad spectrum of conditions observed. The timing of AID manifestation after COVID-19 is characterized by marked variability (from 1 to 15 months). Among the autoimmune blood system diseases, the most common are autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIH) and immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), which can develop within a few days after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.